A lyrical abstract painter, Irene Monat Stern’s luminous paintings explore floral and organic forms using thin veils of semi-translucent color. Her earthy tones capture the atmospheric effects of nature, from the bloom of a bright yellow flower to the movement of grey-blue water. Stern’s compositions evoke comparisons with the works of Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, who popularized stain painting in the 1950s, but Stern used this technique to her own ends. In contrast to Frankenthaler and Louis, who more explicitly used gravity to flow paint across their canvases and to create forms, Stern’s color fields appear to magically grow upwards.

After surviving the Holocaust in Poland as a young girl, Stern moved to Paris and then to New York, arriving in 1954. She began studying art at the New York School for Social Research, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum, initially focusing on watercolor. She met the accomplished abstract sculptor Jan Peter Stern, whose large public commissions can be seen throughout New York City and across the country, and the couple married the following year.

In 1965 Irene and Peter moved to Southern California, where her painting began to flourish. Inspired by the coastal landscape, light, and weather, she created ambitious large-scale compositions, which demonstrate her mastery of her medium. A solo exhibition at Source Gallery in San Francisco in 1975 brought her critical acclaim. Taking advantage of the gallery’s expansive loft space, the innovative installation highlighted the paintings Bloom of Life and Downstream by suspending them from hanging panels so that they appeared to float in midair.